Rank 1: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd: Titanic Moves

With its first full year of operation in the FY 2001-02, BSNL clocked a
turnover of Rs 23,500 crore (unaudited figures). In the fiscal 2000-01, BSNL had
registered a turnover of Rs 11,699 crore (from 15 September to 31 March 2001),
as the company was formed in September. But if we take the complete fiscal year’s
figures of 2000-01 then it amounts to Rs 23,034 crore (the accumulative revenues
of DoT and the corporatized BSNL). Taking the accumulated revenue figure for
fiscal 2000-01, BSNL has grown by just 2 percent. A good achievement,
considering the fact that there was a 60 percent reduction in national long
distance (NLD) rates by BSNL, in January, to counter Bharti’s 50 percent cut
in cellular-to-cellular STD rates.

BSNL’s total net switching capacity, as on 31 March 2002, was 41,674,967.
On the switching front, BSNL had a target of 8.4 million in 2001-02, but the
company was able to achieve only 71 percent of the target, as it defaulted on
the wireless front, be it WLL-urban, WLL-rural, or cellular, due to a delay in
the cellular project. In terms of direct exchange line (DEL), the company added
5.1 million fixed phones, 63,914 WLL-urban, 132,582 WLL-rural, and 14,973
cellular phones, in FY 2001-02. On the long-distance transmission front, BSNL
has added OFC capacity of 99,620 rkm as against the target of 126,000 rkm,
bringing the overall OFC capacity of 326,271. BSNL added digital microwave of
around 14,450 rkm, taking the overall tally of microwave systems to 204,551.
BSNL was very successful on the VPT front and added 70,755 as against the target
of 1.44 lakh VPTs, considering the fact that its counterparts in different
circles are still static on three-digit numbers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam LTD TURNOVER FACTSHEET Managing Director : Prithipal Singh Year of Start  : 2000 Area of Operation : Basic, Internet, and cellular services Address : B-148, Statesman House, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi 110001 Tel : 011-3372424 Fax : 011-3372444 Web Site :  www.bsnl.co.in  S W O T Strength  Large spreadout network Weakness Large employee bank Opportunity CDMA and GSM services Threat  Erosion of creamy customers to private service providers

BSNL is planning to increase the suite of value-added services to match with
those of its competitors. It is moving in a big way in the cellular space, and
is planning to launch 24-lakh cellular capacity in 1,000 cities in a time-frame
from August to September, as it has been delayed by a few months. BSNL is
investing around Rs 2,000 crore and its success will help it have a dominant
marketshare in this segment. On the CDMA front, BSNL has 480,000 WLL connections
(fixed as well as mobile) as against the target of 248,000 wireless connections.
In the current fiscal, it plans to add 1.7 million WLL (M) lines.

On the Internet front, BSNL has Internet nodes in 325 SSAs out of 330 SSAs.
The Internet subscribers base of BSNL at the end of the FY 2001-02 was 241,670.
The company had plans to provide 20 Gbps and 80 Gbps of DWDM rings to
approximately 30 cities, and it seems it is now planning to implement DWDM
project in this fiscal.

BSNL has taken a lot of initiatives on the customer satisfaction front. It is
planning to reduce the fault rate from 14 per 100 presently to 10 per 100, and
has plans to offer itemized billing to its fixed line services customers . BSNL
is also planning to provide free voice mail services to all its fixed line
subscribers. The company also plans to provide SMS service to fixed line
subscribers. It has also initiated branding of its NLD service under ‘Call Now’
and the basic phone services under ‘bfone’.